{ DAY 411 }

Refresh. Click, click, click.  I’ve fallen into the trap, the big-nasty-dark-side-of-social-media trap.  The one where I post something and then check a ridiculous amount of times to see who “liked” it or who commented.  Don’t tell me you haven’t done that because I know we all have!  We’ve refreshed that page enough times that if it were actually refreshing a person we’d have provided clean water for all of Africa…  Have you been snared by this sneaky trap?  Quite a while ago I stopped checking my site status because it was discouraging me but even with one snare gone I’m sad to say that I look at those “likes” and comments (or the complete lack there of) and I base my ability to write or connect with people on that fact alone.  Since when did likes or comments determine my ability?!  I start writing and posting to get attention and that right there is when I start going wrong.  Why did I start a blog in the first place?  Why do I still write?  What is my goal for this blog?  Those are the questions I need to ask instead of how many views a post or status received.  I need to write because it’s what I need to do and I need to not give a cent what anyone else thinks.  The moment I start writing to get attention is the moment I become a slave.  And you can bet I don’t want anything to do with being a slave.  Have you been a slave and not even known it?  Some of the greatest writers of our day may be in complete obscurity while writers with less ability to effectively communicate rise to fame.  I’m not saying that you shouldn’t try to build a platform and influence people or not link your blog posts to Facebook.  Some excellent bloggers link their posts to Facebook a few times a day.  What I am saying is write to grow better and write to have a voice but never write to gain an identity!  Don’t fall into the trap that I did.  Real people in Africa are dying every day from a lack of clean water.  In light of that I don’t think how many likes and comments we get anywhere on social media is all that important…